Fourth African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD IV): Feminist approach to debt at the heart of discussions in Maputo | www.l-integration.com – INTEGRATION
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Ph:DR: Family photo of AfCoDD IV participants in Mapouto (Mozambique)
“The Debt Crisis in Africa: Pan-African and Alternative Feminist Perspectives” this is the main theme of the Fourth African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD IV) which will be held between August 28 and 30, 2024 in Maputo (Mozambique). The Conference calls on women to participate in the fight against public debt which has been weighing on the development of African countries for years. The perspective of a feminist approach to debt will be analyzed in all its aspects to bring out innovative and intelligent alternatives in order to support women in the “Stop the Bleeding” campaign and in the initiative to build a new financial architecture for African economies.
Maputo, Aline ASSANKPON
The fourth edition of the African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD IV) opened this Wednesday, August 28, 2024 at the Radisson Blu hotel in Maputo, the capital of the Republic of Mozambique. This great continental meeting, of giving and receiving, appears as a journey that includes Lusophones, Anglophones and Francophones, civil society, the media, trade unionists, parliamentarians and lawyers to explore together the main theme in its all aspects. “The debt crisis in Africa: Pan-African feminist perspectives and alternatives”.
This forum on the debt crisis puts the power of women at the heart of discussions. This is the need to “addressing the gap in the distributional impact of alternative proposals on the debt crisis and the strategies to be implemented to deconstruct the rooting ofs extractive colonial economic models that continue to subjugate African women”.
Rich panels and sessions to guide reflection
Sub-themes are scheduled for the second day of work. Through analyzes and debates in several panels, participants will have to make their contributions with innovative ideas of resilience for a better future for Africa. These include: “Feminist Approaches to Transforming the Global Financial Architecture: Lessons from Taxation and International Trade”; “The G20 Common Framework and the Landscape of Development Finance in Africa: Impact on Achieving Feminist Aspirations for Public Debt Management in Africa”; “Stop TheBleeding Citizens Forum on the Debt Crisis in Africa and its impact on Communities”; “Rethinking sovereign debt through a human rights lens: Lessons from Mozambique”; “An alternative African perspective for multilateralism: Strengthening the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to respond to global challenges”; “A Legal Overview of Public Debt Management in Africa and its Implications for National Resource Mobilization”; “Feminist Perspectives and Pan-African Youth: Alternatives to the African Debt Crisis”; “Combating predatory lending and promoting debt restructuring without austerity in Africa”; “Campaigns and Mobilization for Debt Advocacy: Citizen Engagement for Sustainable Change from a Feminist Perspective”; “Women’s Debt Barometer: Women’s Observatory”; “Feminist Perspectives and Practices on Public Debt and Women’s Rights”; “Examining Debt financing and Illicit Flows from a pan-African feminist perspective”; “Dialogue on Debt, Extraction and Gender Inequality in Africa”. (Editor’s note: We will come back in more detail on the content of some specific themes)
In this forum, therefore, it is a matter of adopting new strategies that are different from those that have been around for a while on macroeconomic modelling. It is also a matter of proposing under a gender prism that considers women, men and young people, “to build a new financial architecture apart from broken global debt and finances, prioritize profit over populations or even indirectly d“African women disproportionately affected”.
The conference on African debt therefore opens up to feminist economics and is particularly important because of the historic link of the city of Maputo with initiatives in favor of equality between men and women.
The official opening of the work was prevented by several interventions; in particular: a welcome address by Professor Adriano Nuvunga, Director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Maputo (Mozambique). He takes the opportunity to describe the perverse effects of debt on the development of Mozambique, a country very rich in mineral resources, but economically poor and languishing under the burden of public debt. By highlighting the interconnection between debt management and wider development agendas, Mr Nuvunga underlines the urgency of the collaborative efforts that must be delivered in order to restore “the hope of the future generation stolen by the public debt”.
Among other interventions, the most notable was that of the feminist Khanysile Tshabalala Litchfield of the African Parliamentary Network. She takes the stage to call on women to be bold, to commit to the fight against public debt and to take as a model of courage, African women who have the courage to assert themselves in order to exercise power. She pays a lively tribute to these African women, warriors, fighters that the history of African nations still remembers as “Queen Tassi Hangbe of Dahomey Agodjie”, (today’s Benin) and many other women of the continent like model of Amazon today. women, of brave women. “Long live, long live African women!” she was chanting for a burst of the female gender.
Screening of a film on the devastating impact of public debt
As a prelude to the opening of the conference, there was a pre-conference screening of an informative and inspiring film. A film that explores the devastating effect of public debt on the citizens of a nation and its governance. The trailer gives an insight into the intense drama and the individual struggles faced by those caught in the economic turmoil. Made in Nigeria, this film traces the economic mismanagement and neglect of the Governors of their responsibilities towards their population who are facing serious difficulties. This is an example of how (poor) Africans struggle under the weight of public debt with inadequate public services. Follow the film with this link: (AA)
Framing Africa’s debt challenge through a feminist lens
Indeed, the various interventions highlighted Africa’s debt challenge from a feminist prism. These interventions relate to three main points: Pointing out the importance of political awareness from the feminist perspective when analyzing the debt challenge in order to obtain alternative proposals as solutions; Focusing on exactly what a feminist lens means in terms of politics, power, production and productivity for Africa’s debt challenge. “Et in which context lthe absence of this perspective maybe good whatr holistic and peripheral solutionsi went Since some policies ignorent encore the contributions of women and girls to the economic development of their area or even the state“. And finally, to integrate a feminist discourse into the overall analysis of the African debt problem and to develop solutions to this problem. So the sub-theme,“Framing Africa’s debt challenge from a feminist perspective”.